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If it's only the poor get punished and the rich get away with it, then the whole idea of "punishment for crime, because we want to prevent crime" becomes warped into "punishment for being poor" and then activism gets its rationale for coming into being, and we end up with the whole "don't punish Johnny for his life circumstances" stuff which leads us to where we are today.
If both Johnny and Jonathan get punished, and there is no option for Jonathan to end up in cushy private rehab while Johnny goes to jail - if both go to jail and it doesn't matter a flying damn if Daddy knows the Governor - then we get an equal society and people will back "tough on crime" policies, because they can see it really is tough on crime and not 'tough on not being able to pay off the judge'.
No, it becomes "punishment for being poor and criminal". Which is indeed bad, but solving the problem by letting the poor off for being criminal doesn't help. That just leads to the poor not being punished because they're poor, the sufficiently rich not being punished because they are powerful, and the bulk of the productive people of society being both over-policed and preyed on by criminals.
We're never going to get that. The Hunter Bidens of this world will always be able to get away with things unless their parents happen to be extremely unusually morally upstanding. But that we can't get justice against Hunter doesn't mean we need to allow the Jordan Neelys of this world free reign.
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